Aids Treatment Overfunded in Uganda, and Basic Care Neglected

by Mike Smith · 2009-10-06 17:03:00 UTC
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Significant progress is being made to fight Aids, with 42% of those who need drugs receiving them, and over 4 million poor and middle-income people receiving help. The Economist explains, "the fight, then, is by no means over. But the good guys seem to be winning." But is there such a thing as too much goodness?

In Uganda, hundreds of millions of dollars are being spent on HIV research, testing, and ARV medicines, but funds for Aids crate a huge imbalance. Daniel Halpern, an Aids researcher at Harvard, told the BBC that there was $3 billion being spent on Aids programs in Africa, whilst only $30 million is spent on safe drinking water, and emergency rooms continue to lack basic supplies. Huge deliveries of ARV medicine are overwhelming African health ministries, and the medicine is often at risk or expiring and becoming unusable.

Whilst Aids deaths accounted for 94,000 in Uganda in 2002, malaria, diarrhea, and tuberculosis accounted for 86,000 deaths. We must be thankful that there's any money at all, but correcting the balance — even a little — would surely allow the fight against Aids to continue at the same speed, whilst saving thousands of other lives.

Photo credit: Jon Rawlinson

Mike Smith
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